Warther's Woodcarving Museum

PSA.... PSA... JAZZI CALLED ME YESTERDAY.. AND DUE TO THE STORMS THAT HAVE EFFECTED ALL OF OUR FURENDS IN ILLINOIS... LIKE PIP AND SUGAR.. JAZZI WON'T BE ABLE TO BLOG FOR A DAY OR SO MORE... SHE HAS NO ELECTRICALS... which means no internets. Jazzi says she is SAFE butt very HOT.. she and her Mom slept outside on their porch swing night before last.. just to keep cool. There are soooooo many without power in that whole region that it may be DAYS before we hear from our furends.

OKAY... you can Google Warther Woodcarving Museum fur more Info about this Amazing man. He was a Steelmill worker.. with only a Second Grade Education... NO formal training in Mathmatics and YET he Carved things to PERFECT 1/2 inch=1 foot Scale! This first pic is a closeup of the Train Car that is a replaca of the Train that Carried Pres. Abraham Lincoln home to Illinois after he was assinated. You can see his head "through the window" of the car.
This is the car.. see how he carved the Bunting and Tassles on the Outside of the car?

THIS particular Train is carved from Ebony and Ivory. you can see the TINY "rivets" that are ivory. The "Shiny" looking "Bar" in the middle is carved Mother of Pearl. Look at all the PERFECT details. THE Wheels ACTUALLY Turn..

This is the Engine of Mr. Warther's Favorite Train. It is truly amazing!! Again Ivory and Ebony.

Mr. Warther's "Calling Card" was wooden PLIERS.. that he would make ALL FROM ONE SOLID PIECE OF WOOD.. WITH NO LOSS OF ANY OF THE ORIGINAL WOOD... NO SHAVINGS, IN OTHER WORDS. THIS IS HIS FAMOUS PLIER "TREE" THAT WAS ON DISPLAY AT THE CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR. MR. RIPLEY (BELIEVE IT OR NOT GUY) WANTED TO BUY IT... BUTT MR. WARTHER NEVER EVER SOLD A SINGLE THINGY THAT HE CARVED. IT WAS HIS HOBBY!!! He carved this thingy to display the plier tree.. look at all the "bricks" and stuffs that are there.

This is one of several several DeWitt Clinton steam engines that he carved. Mr. Warther sort of PRACTICED on several of them.

This train is carved TOTALLY from Ivory... you can see the other side of the engine and "coal car" in their reflection. Every piece of Coal.. which is actually Ivory... are individually carved and held in place with a special type of "glue' stuff.

When Mr. Warther furst started carving.. he would take the beef bones from his wife's soup pot and use that fur anything "WHITE".. he later replaced the Bone with Ivory. You can see some of the types of ivory that he used... elephant tusks.. of course.. butt also Narwal, Hippo and other sources. He refused to use any Elephant tusks that were NOT Dark... which means that the elephant died of natural causes. THIS train is ALL ivory and it is on an Ebony Bridge. to make it look like Bricks.. he inlayed it with teeeeeeny pieces of Ivory.

Look at the DETAIL.. Even the engineer!!

Here is another example of his PLIERS... this was all made from ONE SOLID piece of wood.. and again... not a single splinter of wood was.. Lost from his carving techniques. EVERY SINGLE one of these.. attached Pliers.. DOES OPEN AND CLOSE!!!!

I hope you find this a facinating as I do. I have been to this museum many times and LOVE it MORE each time. The man was a genius! Painters are a dime a dozen.. when you compare their works of ART to this man's. He Carved his Last Train when he was in his 80's.

Please remember our furends that were effected by this LATEST series of Storms.

Tomorrow... will be my furend Alan Cottrill's Sculpture. You can google HIM also.